POWELL SPEECH: WE ARE MANAGING RISKS OF MOVING TOO SOON VS MOVING TOO LATE

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell explains the decision to leave the policy rate, federal funds rate, unchanged at the range of 5.25-5.5% and responds to questions in the post-meeting press conference.

Key quotes

"Almost everyone on the Committee believes it will be appropriate to reduce rates."

"We are trying to identify a place we are confident on inflation to begin the process of dialing back the restrictive level."

"In theory, real rates go up as inflation goes down, but can't mechanically adjust policy."

"We don't know where the neutral rate of interest is."

"We are really in a risk management mode."

"We are managing risks of moving too soon vs moving too late."

"Timing of cuts is linked to our confidence